Rays lose Johnson with sore shoulder

By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 25, 2005

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] David Ortiz rushes pitcher Lance Carter after being decked. A bench-clearing brawl ensued.
Main story John Romano: There's fight in this little team Bad blood Nixon bristles, fingers Brazelton Rays lose Johnson with sore shoulder
	Teammates restrain Boston's Trot Nixon, who claims that Tampa Bay's Dewon Brazelton tried to poke his eyes. [AP photo]

ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays were trying to get veteran catcher Charles Johnson in the lineup. Now they might be without him for a while.

Johnson left Sunday's game in the middle of the third inning because of soreness in his right shoulder. Johnny Damon and Edgar Renteria stole bases in the first two innings and Johnson, who bounced his first throw for an error, later felt some discomfort.

"The shoulder was bothering him after one of the throws early in the ballgame and we had to get him out," manager Lou Piniella said.

Johnson was scheduled for an MRI exam late Sunday, and the Rays are likely to make a decision on his status after he is examined by team doctors today. With starter Toby Hall the only other catcher on the roster, the Rays would have to add another catcher if Johnson won't be available for Tuesday's game in Toronto.

They could activate Kevin Cash , who has been on the disabled list with shoulder and neck problems since the end of spring training, or they could bring up either Pete Laforest or Tim Laker from Triple A. Neither is on the 40-man roster, however, which would require the Rays to drop another player.

NOMO SO-SO: Hideo Nomo got off to a rough start in his bid for his 199th overall victory between Japan and the major leagues, but he found his rhythm and ended up giving the Rays six decent innings.

"As the game progressed he got better and better, which was good to see," Piniella said.

Nomo, through an interpreter, said the problem was location. "The ball was a little high at first," he said. "I was able to do better later in the game."

Nomo is scheduled to start Friday in Baltimore. With his 200th win, he will join the Meikyukai, which is the Japanese Golden Players Club.

QUESTIONABLE CALL: Piniella said he agreed with most of the rulings made by the umpires regarding the hit batters and ejections, but didn't buy crew chief Rick Reed 's explanation why Boston's David Ortiz wasn't ejected for moving toward the mound after a close pitch from Lance Carter .

"He said the (home plate) umpire had him in a bear hug," Piniella said. "I said, "What's that got to do with it? Kick the umpire and him out both. I told him that as far as the things that they did, as far as making the decisions, the Ortiz decision wasn't a good one."

Piniella said he doesn't expect that he or Carter will be suspended.

McCLUNG MYSTERY: Before the game, Piniella said reliever Seth McClung needed to do a better job handling different situations. After McClung walked two of his four batters and was charged with two more runs, raising his ERA to 11.00, Piniella was even more direct.

"McClung is struggling," he said. "It looks to me like he's just aiming the ball. We need to get him straightened out."

CROWD CONTROL: With Sunday's crowd of 30,236 at Tropicana Field, the Rays drew 93,986 for the weekend, their best for a three-date series since July 16-18, 2000, when the Braves attracted 100,958.

SLAM BAM: The grand slam by Jay Payton in the eighth inning was the fifth the Rays have allowed in their past 10 games, and the third by a Boston batter. The most they have allowed in a season is six.

MINOR MATTERS: Montgomery's Fernando Cortez went 2-for-3 Saturday to raise his average to .510 (25-for-49). ... According to the Montgomery Advertiser , benches emptied in Saturday's Montgomery-Birmingham game when Delmon Young , after being hit by a pitch, "flung his bat high in the air" and it landed "about two-thirds of the way toward pitcher Dwayne Pollack ." ... B.J. Upton extended his hitting streak to 11 games on Saturday for Triple-A Durham, raising his average to .343. Joey Gathright is hitting .348.

MISCELLANY: The Rays notched their major-league high 13th game of at least 10 hits. ... Ortiz's three home runs in the series went a total of 1,310 feet. ... Nick Green hit his first homer with the Rays, with a career-high matching three hits. ... Damon improved to .418 lifetime with the bases loaded, tops among active players with 100 such at-bats.

[Last modified April 25, 2005, 01:05:08]